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Program Notes by Keith Campbell |
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When Manzoni died on May 22, 1873, Verdi was too grief-stricken to attend the funeral, but a week later he went to Milan and visited Manzoni's grave alone. Then through his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, Verdi expressed his desire to compose a Requiem Mass to be performed on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death. Verdi thought that this might be his last composition. At Verdi's urging, Ricordi convinced the mayor of Milan to underwrite the expenses of the premiere, in return for which Verdi would compose the music, conduct the performance, print the music, and retain all future performance rights. Verdi started work on the Requiem in Paris, during the summer of 1873. The first part he completed, Libera me, was the reworking of something he had composed earlier. On the death of Gioacchino Rossini, Verdi had asked thirteen then prominent, but now virtually forgotten, Italian composers to write one part of a Requiem Mass to honor Rossini. Although the participants completed the various sections, they quarreled so much among themselves, and those that were excluded raised such a fuss, that the project was dropped, the music was returned to the composers, and the piece was never performed. Verdi used his contribution to the Rossini Requiem as the basis for a much expanded Libera me section in his new Requiem, and, working very fast, completed the entire composition in less than a year, on April 16, 1874.
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REQUIEM AETERNAM and KYRIE ELEISON (Andante) The work begins with a hushed descending phrase on muted cellos, immediately expressing the solemnity of the occasion. This theme is repeated, now softly harmonized in the strings, as the choir quietly whispers the Introit (Requiem aeternam). A symmetrical ABA form is created. In the unaccompanied middle section, the psalm verse Te decet hymus is taken up joyfully, voice by voice. The opening theme returns and the three part section ends quietly and leads straight into the Kyrie, an urgent and moving prayer for mercy sung in an imitative style by the four soloists and chorus. Virtually all of the material in the Kyrie is drawn from the opening tenor melody and from its accompanying instrumental countermelody, a diminution of the cello motive heard at the beginning of the the work. II. DIES IRAE (Allegro agitato) The text of the Sequence DIES IRAE (Day of Wrath), the Last Judgment vision of Thomas of Celano (d. 1250), is the literary counterpart of the "Doom" paintings which usually hung above the arch leading into the choir and sanctuary of medieval churches, reminding congregations of their fate after death. Verdi immediately seizes our attention with four thunderclaps of his own musical "Doom" in the orchestra. Trombones, tuba and bass-drum are added to the score, as are trumpets, which echo in the distance. There are wonderful unsettled and urgent melodies everywhere. Verdi sets the Sequence text as one large movement with thirteen connected sections that differ greatly in tonality, tempo, and emotional content, the settings expressing in turn terror, majesty, supplication, and tenderness. Deeply involved in the text, Verdi emphasizes the Salva Me (Save Me) which, with the constantly recurring Dies Irae motif, makes the poem a depiction of individual terror on the Day of Judgment. Verdi closes, after a last glimpse at the Dies Irae, on a long decrescendo covering the last six lines, Lacrymosa dies illa (That tearful day). The thoughts and possibilities of personal damnation recede, and the section ends with a prayer for the dead: dona eis requiem (give them peace). III. OFFERTORIUM. DOMINE JESU CHRISTE (Andante mosso) The tone and settings of the next sections change to a more liturgical feeling. Verdi keeps all these movements short and subdued in comparison to his Dies Irae. He will balance that earlier climax with the Libera me, Domine (Free me, Lord) at the works conclusion. The Offertory, Domine Jesu, is set in imitative texture as a five-part sectional and symmetrical movement for the four soloists. The form is ABCBA with three contrasting tempos. Verdi's flowing melodies are supported by subdued orchestral accompaniment. IV. SANCTUS and BENEDICTUS (Allegro) The joyously exuberant Sanctus is a great double chorus introduced by resounding trumpets. The Hosanna in excelsis is a variant of the Sanctus theme and has an air of jubilation. The Benedictus that follows employs a second modification of the theme, this time in the relative minor. An important characteristic of this movement is the scampering continuous motion in the orchestra and the vigorous, or later, expressive, lines of the chorus. V. AGNUS DEI (Andante) The beginning of the Agnus Dei, unexpectedly sung in octaves and without accompaniment by the soprano and mezzo soprano soloists, seems to come from another world. The choir repeats that section, again in octaves and reinforced by a few instruments. A minor variant of the theme, with counterpoint in flute and clarinet, follows. The third phrase, again for soloists and in C major, is followed by the choral refrain; but now the soloists add their voices to the choir and the accompaniment grows in complexity. VI. COMMUNION. LUX AETERNA (Molto moderato) The Communion, Lux Aeterna, is a serene trio for mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone. Verdi seizes on the text's ideas of supernatural light and eternal rest with shimmering strings, and the soloists present the text in unaccompanied contrapuntal textures, in quasi-parlando (speech-like) style, and in lyrical melodies over a pulsating accompaniment. VII. ABSOLUTION. LIBERA ME (Moderato) The Mass is over and (as it would happen in a church) the Libera me is sung with accompanying ritual, before the coffin of the deceased person. Verdi achieves a coherent musical form acceptable to nineteenth-century musical procedure by recapitulating both the introductory Requiem aeternam and the Dies irae. Before the chorus reintroduces the Dies irae the solo soprano, hitherto not heard but with other voices, makes the concept of the Last Judgment intensely personal in first a form of chant like recitative (which the choir echoes in awe) and then a moving arioso. The recapitulated Requiem gives to the chorus that material which at first belonged to the orchestra, but subtly varied and sung, with the solo soprano soon assuming a dominating role. The final section Libera me is a fugue with a theme derived by inverting the fugal theme of the Sanctus. No emotional release is given after the final fugue's rush of sound. There is no sudden burst into sunny amens, no resolution to the fears that have been raised. On a descending motive used sequentially in the orchestra and reminiscent of the cello motive which began the entire work, and with a brief return of the chant-like phrase in the soprano solo, the movement ends quietly. Verdi, a nonobservant Catholic, was too honest an artist to fake an ending that he did not himself feel. In not offering a clear solution, Verdi reflected the increasing uncertainty of the end of the nineteenth century when Darwin and the new science were shaking traditional beliefs. The Requiem rings true to his belief in the need for a relationship to a Creator or an Ideal. It also rings true to his veneration of Manzoni. At the end of his Requiem Verdi has his singers and audience praying for peace and light, not for the dead, but for themselves, the living.
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